The company announced Tuesday it would invest more than $2.2 million at the factory in Hammond to make seating for the Ford Explorer SUV. Southfield, Mich.-based Lear has about 160 workers at the plant and plans to begin hiring once upgrades are completed to its manufacturing lines.

Lear officials say the Hammond factory has supplied parts to Ford's Chicago assembly plant since the mid-1990s and that it was the ideal location for the company's work for the new Explorer that will be built at the Chicago plant.